Dick Advocaat: Good performance in Hannover, but we see things we have to improve

Chris Young in Germany

Sunderland produced their most complete performance of the pre-season programme to beat Hannover 96 1-0 in today’s final pre-season friendly – a week ahead of the Premier League kick-off at Leicester.

One of Sunderland’s new signings, Jeremain Lens, grabbed the only goal of the game here in Germany with his first for the club, as Dick Advocaat’s side produced their most complete performance of the pre-season programme.

Costel Pantilimon had to keep out a late penalty, after the Bundesliga outfit were awarded a ludicrous spot-kick, yet Sunderland merited a victory which Advocaat was pleased by.

“In the last five weeks, they have done a lot of physical work, under quite difficult circumstances,” he added.

“This was tough again today, it was nice for us sitting on the bench, but on the pitch it was really hot.

“But they did it well.

“I thought it was a fair result and any time you come to Germany and get a win, it’s a good thing.

“We can see some things during the game that we have to improve, but we have a week to do that.

“That’s what we have to work on, making the team better.

“We didn’t give a lot of chances away today, which was a positive, but we still have to work on pressurising the ball earlier.”